Axles of devotion

And so we turn
        around axles of devotion
circling the lips and the roses
        that render us oblivious
to the dark lanes of death
        There was a time
when bee and butterfly flew
        from bloom to bloom
pollinating the fruit of our lives
        a time when star kissed star
and wave fell upon wave
        in the ever-shifting sea
our bodies barricades
        to the deathward parade
of twisted time
        My hand upon her breast
and in my words
        the perennials of love
that built a tower
        of whispered light

And so we lived within
        the permissions granted
holding life’s empty burlesques
        at arm’s length
fighting bone by bone
        for a bliss beyond
the dreary sesames of science

A drench of tears could never
        save the moon from meaningless
catastrophe
        its icy shadows all a mockery
of every ticking dream
        Only the flesh remembers
only the flesh holds stone to account
        Only the flesh will bring us through
the troubled foam of all our days

My eyes have hugged beauty
        have clung to its cliff-like façade
and in my arms I have felt
        the pangs of mortal dust
As evening fell the first moth
        circled the bright candle
and I feared for its life

John Lyons